Futures for the Standard & Poor’s 500 and Dow Jones industrial average both were down 0.1 per cent. In Europe, Germany’s DAX’s declined 0.4 per cent to 9,671.29 and France’s CAC-40 shed 0.5 per cent to 4,399.48. Britain’s FTSE 100 shed 0.6 per cent to 6,825.54.

Asian markets were rattled by a deceleration in the rise of Chinese housing prices in January and weakness in China’s currency, which has long been a one-way bet on slow steady appreciation.

Last week’s decline in the tightly controlled yuan prompted suggestions Beijing might be trying to support exporters and help offset weakening domestic demand. That came after an HSBC Corp. survey showed Chinese manufacturing activity in February tumbled to a seven-month low.

“We believe that the central bank will be accepting of some more weakness in coming days,” said Credit Agricole CIB in a report.

Seoul’s Kospi gained 0.8 per cent to 1,964.86. Sydney’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.1 per cent to 5,433.8 and New Zealand declined 0.2 per cent to 5,322.05.

Benchmark U.S. oil for April delivery was down 55 cents to $102.27 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gained 62 cents on Monday to close at $102.82.

In currency markets, the euro was little changed at $1.3749 from $1.3736 late Monday. The dollar fell to 102.38 yen from 102.50 yen.